What Pocono car dealerships do in snowstorms

For car dealerships, lots of snow means brushing the snow off all of those cars on the lot and then moving all of those cars around so that the lot can be plowed and salted.

ANDREW SCOTT

Lots of snow means different things to different people.

Building snowmen and making snow angels. Clearing out driveways and cleaning off cars.

For car dealerships, it means brushing the snow off all of those cars on the lot and then moving all of those cars around so that the lot can be plowed and salted.

Fun, right? Not for Bill Pipolo, general manager of Sensible Auto in Swiftwater.

"That's all we've done for the past two days, just moving cars back and forth and clearing the lot," Pipolo said Friday. "We had to move everything at least twice, all just to get back to where we were before the storm. It's nonproductive and doesn't really accomplish anything."

Well, there was one bright moment during the height of the storm Thursday. "Somebody walked in off the street and bought a $15,000 used Kia Sorrento SUV," Pipolo said.

Walt Price, who with his brother Ray owns Ray Price Chevrolet in Mount Pocono, figures people will come out in any kind of weather if they really need a new car and the dealership is open.

"They sell cars in Buffalo, N.Y., and you know how their winters are," Price said. "We sold three cars when it snowed last week. Being up here in Mount Pocono, we're used to the winters. There's not much you can do but plan ahead. We've gotten into a pretty good routine of moving our vehicles and cleaning our lot when we need to."

Jason Motts, president of Abeloff Nissan in Tannersville, said the dealership tries to avoid moving the vehicles on its lot more than once during a storm.

"We generally don't get any sales or service business on days like we had this week," Motts said. "Our customers cancel because their plans obviously change."

Sales manager Joe Giardina at Ertle Subaru in Stroudsburg summed it up in one simple statement: "It's just how it is."

"It's bad for business," Giardina said. "People stay home. Meanwhile, you clean the cars, you move them, you plow the lot and you put the cars back. What more do you want?"